Reading Room: PHANTOM LADY & SPIDER WIDOW Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Heroines...

Feature Comics #71

The Spider Widow and Phantom Lady, brought together to battle a menace threatening PL's father, US Senator Knight, have also developed a rivalry for the affections of The Raven.

Note: the order is changed this month as the Spider Widow tale comes first in story continuity.

Also, even though most sources list this as a Frank Borth job, it's not signed, as most of his work is, and the art style is a bit...off.

So while Borth probably wrote and penciled the story, he probably didn't ink it.

Now for the Phantom Lady installment...

Police Comics #22

The art here seems to be a combination of Frank Borth and Phantom Lady creator Arthur Peddy.

Both Spider Widow and Phantom Lady would make one more appearance in their respective series before being canceled.

While Phantom Lady was revived and revised at Fox Publishing, the Spider Widow hasn't appeared in a new story since.

We hope you enjoyed this look at the first version of Phantom Lady, and we'll be returning to the Fox Phantom Lady series in January, 2012...

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Reading Room: NOT WHO YOU THINK: "Wonder Man" Conclusion

When Last We Left Super...I mean Wonder Man...

Aw, c'mon, he's leaping tall buildings at a single bound, for Chrissakes!

During a visit to Tibet, electronics expert Fred Carson is given a ring by an elderly monk which imbues him with superhuman strength, speed, limited flight, enhanced vision and audio abilities, and invulnerability.
Returning to the USA,  he is sent by his employer to the war-torn country of Tatonia to test his new long-range television transmitter, as well as chaperoning the boss' daughter who is serving as a Red Cross nurse.
When the Red Cross field hospital is attacked, Carson becomes Wonder Man and battles the enemy.
Meanwhile, the boss' daughter is captured...

Nope, there wasn't "another action filled Wonder Man adventure"!

When the second (and last) issue of Wonder Comics came out, Wonder Man was nowhere to be found.

DC Comics' lawyers had immediately leaped into action when Wonder Comics #1 hit the newsstands,  suing Fox Publications with a copyright infringement lawsuit.

Will Eisner, who wrote and drew the story at the behest of publisher Victor Fox claimed for years that he testified in court that Wonder Man was a deliberate imitation of Superman (which was the truth).

However, as shown in court transcripts HERE, Eisner committed perjury on the stand (as instructed by Fox), claiming that the then-neophyte writer/artist had conceived the Wonder Man strip months before Action Comics #1 had been published!

Despite that, the court ruled in favor of DC, and the first Wonder Man never reappeared.

There have been several Wonder Men since then, including a super-powered futuristic hero who also used advanced weaponry, more of a Captain Future than Superman (and who was called "WonderMan")...

...and the Marvel Comics character introduced in Avengers #V1 N9 (1964).

BTW, is it a coincidence that the costumes of The Incredibles follow the same design motif and color scheme as the original Wonder Man's?

 I think not! ;-)

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Reading Room: NOT WHO YOU THINK: "Wonder Man" Part 1

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a lawsuit waiting to happen!

Wonder Man made only ONE appearance before the publishers of a certain mild-mannered reporter/superhero sued, claiming he was TOO similar to you-know-who!
A judge agreed, the character "retired", never to be seen again (until now) and Wonder Comics was retitled WonderWorld Comics!

Tune in tomorrow for the thrilling conclusion to the origin of Super...I mean Wonder Man.

Yeah, that's it!

Wonder Man!

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Reading Room: PHANTOM LADY & SPIDER WIDOW Part 2

When Last We Left Our Heroines...

Police Comics #21

To that, we would add that the two heroines and a hero saved the life of Phantom Lady's father, Senator Knight!

Amazing, these crooks are yards away from the dueling damsels, yet they recognize Phantom Lady as Sandra Knight!

Her boyfriend in the Fox issues, Don, is even dumber than I thought!

Then the story continued in Spider Widow's home, Feature Comics...

Feature Comics #70

Scripter/artist Frank Borth was one of the under-appreciated craftsmen of the era.

He produced almost 100 stories, but never hit the "big time" with a major character or title.

Even his work on Phantom Lady is overshadowed by Matt Baker's more cheesecakey art on the later Fox version!

Be here next week for the final two chapters and a couple of surprises!

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Reading Room: Silver Age FRANKENSTEIN "Reward"

The Silver Age was an odd period of comics history...

 ...when anyone from spies (T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents) to soldiers (Blackhawk) to monsters could be remade into superheroes...with decidedly-mixed results!
You can read the origin of this funky, far-out revamp of Frankenstein HERE, the second part HERE, then continue with the cataclysmic conclusion to his premiere appearance...

How many elements from Silver Age Superman and Batman stories can you find in this tale?

(I found at least five, some for both Superman and Batman, some just from Batman.)

The art was by Tony Tallarico, who was working steadily for both Dell and Charlton, producing literally reams of pages per month in every genre!

(And most of the time he was inking himself, as well!)

The series ran only two more issues before Dell decided monster-based superheroes weren't the way to go, and canceled this book, as well as Dracula and WereWolf.

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